STATE SERVICES: BOARD CONTROL

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 52, 2 March 1934, Page 6

STATE SERVICES: BOARD CONTROL

Not so Very long ago the railway service in New.Zealand was practically a transport monopoly; the Post Office still is. . Development of road competition with the railways compelled the country to place its raili.way service- under >a board, for the purpose:iof strengthening, the coniniercial and weakening "the political side of railway control; and there is little doubt that, had railways been State-owned in Britain, a similar reform would have been made at a much earlier stage of the traffic drift. It is not surprising, therefore, to hear of a Post Office Board being constituted ;iii. the Old' Country. Slate monopoly may or may not be open to similar challenges in the postal field as in the railway field; but it has to be remembered thai the people.

as user§-• of j public services; cannot allow 'any'great State Service Jto'fall [far below the level of merit that a competing service could supply. [What has happened in the transport lof people and goods could conceivably happen in the related field."of communications (Post Office, wires, and wireless); and it. is clear that \he reap strength of a -Pbst-CJffice'Us in its cheapness and not in its legal monopoly. The British Broadcasting Corporation, and in. a" lesser, degree Ijie.-new Post Office Board, are signs of the .times. Both must keep pace I with, the best in science. Both conjtrol large staffs—the -British -postal I staff- of 230,000 men and women is lanarmy in itself.! -In addition^ the ft'BiC, speaking direct'to the; public, handles most delicate 'matters', "of policy. '■■••••' ; :..'.:. _• -.-;;..-,